IBM nanomedicine researchers working with Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) have come up with a method for recycling plastic bottles – specifically those made with polyethylene terephthalate (PET) – to defeat drug-resistant fungal infections as well as bacterial infections such as MRSA.
"Our latest …

COMMENTS

I love science!

I get regularly depressed reading about the latest ways that big corporations and governments spend billions to kill and maim people in more inventive ways, but whenever I'm down suddenly something like this comes along and restores my faith that there loads of GOOD boffins out there who want to make the world a better place.

Recycled drinks bottles for heaven's sake - could it get any neater? A cure for diabetes made out of sweet wrappers?

Re: On the contrary.

Goodwill? Can they pay their scientists with goodwill? Can they pay their suppliers with goodwill? Can the pensioners who rely on their IBM share dividends heat their homes with goodwill?

For a similar reaction, try asking a professional photographer or graphic designer to do some work for free. Tell them it'll make a great portfolio piece, or it'll look good on their CV, or some such nonsense. Or how about you just give away years of your work in exchange for "goodwill"?

Re: On the contrary. @Buzzword

And there is the difference between us. If I ever come up with something that has this potential for good, I will be honoured to make it open to anyone to use, regardless of the claims of scientists, suppliers, pensioners, photographers and graphic designers (or, closer to home, my family or cats).

Re: On the contrary. @Buzzword

Great News!

I had MRSA a few years ago. From a quarter-sized hole near my knee treated at a hospital my leg from knee to ankle turned dark red and swelled up like a balloon. It took over a week of daily visits to emergency for an IV antibiotic to kill it. Antibiotics are losing the battle against MRSA and other stronger, deadlier resistant infections. I'm surprised that this news was not headline material on the radio and tv broadcasts.

Re: Great News!

There is actually something that can kill many strains of MRSA. You can thank the government for not taking the initiative and allowing it to be used. It is stabilized allicin and the best part, it is natural and not a man made drug. The Brits use it, the US does not as everything has to be pass through the FDA so they can get paid first. Allicin is tried and true but yet the FDA still requires all of the testing and money to be paid. So, the company doesn't sell it in the US and we are left using antibiotics to treat and let MRSA get more and more resistant to antibiotics. The governments try to talk about the global economy but when it comes to government, they prefer isolationism.

Re: Great News!

"Allicin is tried and true but yet the FDA still requires all of the testing and money to be paid."

Whether you believe it or not, it isn't getting paid that matters to the FDA.

It's nonsensical laws that forbid the US FDA to accept the testing results of other nations drug approval authorities.

Problems result whenever politicians legislate, rather than having science regulate. Hence, heroin is illegal in the US, proclaimed as only an abuse drug, whereas in civilized nations, it is prescribed for severe pain.

Re: Biodegradable? More: what's the rest's charge?

Are fungi and bacteria the only negatively charged cells and molecules going around? Is the rest neutral or positively charged? Are there other baddies that are not

The whole thing balances on relative timescales and abundances: If you're dying from MRSA then this stuff destroying e.g. all vitamins it comes across is a fair tradeoff --- provided it biodegrades away in hours, and effectively kills MRSA in the hours before. If it scoops up only the odd MRSA here and there while wreaking wholescale destruction on the balance of other things, and then persist for months before biodegradation, then that's not so superior. "Biodegradation" implies your body is actively attacking it, so it's not 'neutral'.

Hope it's more expensive than anti-biotics

It don't really hope it's expensive, but if it is as cheap as anti-biotics are the ******* drug companies probably won't produce it. Maybe we need a new MRSA that likes to live in drug company board rooms.